title: Loss of color by afterimage masking.
abstract: When two images, one depicting colored disks and the other depicting colored windmill patterns, are displayed in succession, the color of the windmills is perceptually replaced by black. The illusion is striking. Experiments confirmed (1) that the luminance contrast between the target patterns and the background must be large and (2) that the disks and windmills must be static on the retina and in register. The illusion is weakened when the windmills and disks have different colors.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo, 4-6-1, Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan; e-mail: ktakahashi@fennel.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Kohske
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Shun'ya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: Fuminori
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ono
authors.forename: Katsumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Watanabe
keywords: color vision; desaturation; optical illusion